Monday, September 24, 2012

London

I’ve
been mostly offline the past two weeks, although the blog (thanks to the
scheduling feature) has been operating normally. We were on vacation in the UK,
specifically London with a day trip to Oxford.

We
were in London in 1983 for an early 10th anniversary trip. Our
oldest was three (and stayed with his grandparents in New Orleans). Our oldest
now has his oldest who’s 2 ½ and his youngest who’s four months.

Much
in London has changed in the intervening years – and much has stayed the same.
What’s definitely changed is that the food has improved dramatically – we
didn’t have a bad meal the entire time. For our 1983 trip, we can remember the
one really good meal we had.

Some
of the highlights:Seeing
the J.M.W. Turner painting collection at the Tate Britain.The
Lewis chessman exhibit at the British Museum. And the Elgin marbles. And the “Shakespeare
Staging the World” exhibit. And walks around Bloomsbury and Russell Squares.An
early Sunday morning walk along the south embankment from Westminster Bridge to
Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury.Coffee
and dinner with two online friends of my wife’s. Face-to-face still trumps
online.The
parade through central London for the British Olympic and Paralympic teams. We
waved our British flags along with about a million other people.The
evensong service at St. Martin’s in the Fields on Trafalgar Square.The
fireworks display at the conclusion of the River Thames Festival.Seeing
the stage play “Chariots of Fire” at the Gielgud Theatre (our seats were on the
stage – we were part of the Olympic stadium). And then seeing Simon Callow in
the one-man play “The Mystery of Charles Dickens” (he even did the public
reading that Dickens was famous for – the murder of Nancy by Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist).Hearing
my name called while I’m washing my hands in the men’s room at the National
Gallery, and turning to find a friend from our church in St. Louis who was in
London on business.Victoria
sponge cake at the restaurant in the Crypt of St. Martin’s in the Fields.
Twice.Christ
Church College at Oxford (where the staircase and dining hall were used for the
Harry Potter movies) and the Dickens exhibit at the Bodleian Library. And the
Anglo-Saxon Gallery at the Ashmolean Museum.The
Buckingham Palace tour (the Queen does it first-rate).Westminster
Cathedral (the Catholic one, not the Abbey). I went to pick up a Pilates mat
for my wife at a fitness store near Victoria Station and took a slight detour
to see the cathedral. I stood in the back while a mass was going on – in Latin.Walking
around the craziness of the Jubilee Market in Covent Garden on a Sunday
afternoon.The
weather. The one day London caught any rain at all was the day we were in
Oxford – which had sunny skies.The
Edvard Munch art exhibit at the Tate Modern. The Poetry as Image Galleries at
the Tate Modern.The
portraits of Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare at the National Portrait
Gallery, and dinner at the gallery’s rooftop restaurant overlooking Trafalgar
Square.T.S.
Eliot’s grave in Westminster Abbey.The
view from the front door of our hotel: Parliament and Big Ben.

I
wanted to see the Tate Modern Museum, but I didn’t expect to fall in love with
it. I viewed the galleries on one visit, viewed the Munch exhibit on another
visit, and hit it a third time to get a final glimpse of what was my favorite
work in the entire museum – Marguerite Kelsey
by Meredith Frampton (1928) (pictured at the top).

We
also got to see three paintings by Vermeer – one in Buckingham Palace, one in
the National Gallery, and the only one privately owned and currently on loan to
the Ashmolean in Oxford. That’s about 10 percent of Vermeer’s total output.

A Light Shining

Dancing Priest

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Professional writer exploring faith and culture, life and work; happily married to Janet, the love of my life; father of two grown sons. Award-winning speechwriter and communication consultant. I am also a contributing editor for The High Calling and for TweetSpeak Poetry. I am also the author of the novels "Dancing Priest" and "A Light Shining," and the non-fiction book "Poetry at Work."